Overview
This guide is trying to cover some of the basics that new players might be having problems with the game. Might include some more advanced things too.
Introduction
First of all, I used to play Darkstone long time ago and I have spent quite a lot time on it in the past despite of my low hours on Steam account. My favorite class is assassin which I have made past level 60 but that was long time ago.. This means I’m quite experienced at Darkstone and I know a bit more about assassin than other classes.
I used to have a friend who played as a Wizard and was quite good at it so I know something about wizards and I have played Warriors a little bit too although I never got them to high level, I think my warrior might have been only little bit over level 30 or so. Unfortunately I have almost no experiences of Monks (or Priestesses) so can’t really explain much about them. I believe they might be better in multiplayer because of ability (skill[www.thanatosrealms.com]) called Medicine) to heal others. They can also get nice amount of life (5 life for 2 vitality) but class itself hasn’t really insterested me much.
After watching a few LPs of Darkstone, I noticed some players are having problems with a lot of things that are very obvious to me. Things like how to use camera, how to use spells, how to save spells (or skills) on spell slots, why it is hard to hit skeletons, why I can’t get out of the training area in town and so on..
Goal of this guide is to answer these kind of questions in Single Player mode. If this guide doesn’t answer your question or problem you are having then feel free to leave a comment and I’ll see if I can come up with an answer. I won’t talk about multiplayer mode or don’t answer questions how to fix black screens and such. If you are wondering why voice acting breaks, why cutscenes don’t work then I’d say it is because game is old. For those who want to follow the story but can’t because of breaking voices then there is subtitle option in the menu.
If you are wondering which OS I’m playing Darkstone on, it is Windows 7 64-bit and game works great. Well, other than having some graphic flickering in menu.
You should check out these!
Darkstone manual[dsdb.it-taucher.at]
Contains a lot of useful information about the game, story, classes, menus, GUI, controls and much more. Manual even has epilepsy warning as a bonus! Everyone with the game should at least download the pdf even if they don’t like reading.
Thanatos’ Darkstone Realm[www.thanatosrealms.com]
This site has been for a long time my source of information for more advanced things in Darkstone such as quest walkthroughs, what bonuses attributes gives to different classes, what weapon & armor enchantments (& curses) there are, what different spells really do, what kind of armors and weapons there are in the game.. When it comes to information about Darkstone, I’d be lost without this place.
That being said, this guide will be based on my own experiences of Darkstone. If I say camera works with arrow keys then it is because I have known it for several years, not because I happened to take a quick look on manual. If there are things that I need to confirm or double check, things that I’m not completely sure about then I’ll definitely will refer to source material when I check the facts.
Controls
Some of the very basic things that players new to Darkstone are confused about is controls. Even those who have previously played Darkstone on PS would probably need help with PC version of the game.
If you checked the menu then you probably noticed there isn’t any kind of Control section unlike most of the games nowadays have. This also means controls can’t be changed. Game is meant to be controlled with both mouse and keyboard, those who are relying on just one of them most likely won’t have greatest (or easiest) time with the game. And the game doesn’t use WASD keys to move or moving mouse to look around.
- Arrows = Camera control
- I = Inventory (including character stats & equipped items)
- H = History (chat history with NPCs, useful when you can’t remember what they have said)
- L = List of known or visited places (clicking one of the places on the list will make you run (or walk) there if path is clear)
- Backspace = Toggle between walk/run modes
- Q = Quick save
- Space = Close all open windows (Inventory, List, History, Spells or Skills list, …)
- Esc = Menu during the game
- F5-F8 = use belt items for 1st character
- F1-F4 = use belt items for 2nd character (only during Single player if you have 2 characters with you)
- Holding Shift down, left clicking spell in Spells (or skill) window with mouse = Saves clicked spell (or skill) on selected spell slot
- Holding Shift down, left clicking while holding a weapon = Attacks in pointed direction without moving the character, works for both melee and ranged weapons but obviously most useful for ranged weapons.
- Left mouse button = Pick up items, talk to npc, attack with weapon, move around (either click or click and hold it down).
- Right mouse button = Use items in inventory (depending on the item, sometimes you need to left mouse click where you want to use it on, for example magic scrolls), cast selected spell (works as long as you aren’t right clicking anything else that would have different act, such as right clicking GUI elements). With offensive attack spells you need to right click on direction where you want to cast the spell (this depends a little bit on spell, I’ll explain more about spells later).
- Mouse scroll wheel = Scroll active spell slot between all eight spell slots.
Full list of controls can be found on Darkstone manual, pages 49 & 50 (manual) or pages 53 & 54 (pdf).
Hints & Tips
When creating a character, Monk and Priestess classes can be found on right side of Thief when you click the arrow icon. After watching few LPs on YouTube, I noticed some players are missing this.
Similar classes (such as Assassin and Thief, Monk and Priestess, …) don’t have huge differences between each other except one is male and other is female. Probably the biggest differences is between Wizard and Sorcerer because Sorcerer is able to become a werewolf but Wizard cannot.
Sometimes we all might have a few characters we want to get rid of. Maybe we get bored of the name or character class. Anyway, deleting a character is easy.
You can delete characters in same screen where you make them and to do so you need to click the “New Game” option (and then either “One Player” or “Multiplayer”). Then select a character on left side and drag & drop it to the grave with text R.I.P. Your character shall rest in peace.
When breaking barrels and opening chests, make sure you listen to sounds because they easily reveal type of item that drops. Some of the items can be hard to find on ground unless you know what you are looking for, this is true especially for rings and amulets and very helpful before you get Detection[www.thanatosrealms.com] spell to locate magical items or items with such a bonus.. Also listen to sound of opening doors because several monsters are smart enough to open the doors.
Magic Door[www.thanatosrealms.com] is spell that you can use to travel back to Town (it also takes you back to where you came from when you want to leave Town after visit). If your inventory is full and you wanted to get more items with you for sell then make sure to leave potions (health, mana, antidote), quest items (except the Crystals which you can leave in Town), food and other items to dungeon (or where you were before casting Magic Door) that you don’t want to sell at town. This allows you to take more items to town for sell and you can find your potions, quest items and food at same place where you left them when you return.
Resurrection[www.thanatosrealms.com] spell doesn’t work in Single Player if you have only one character with you. You either need to be in Multiplayer or have two characters in Single Player mode.
If you can’t get out of training area in Town then it is most likely because you have an item (a weapon) with you, either equipped or in inventory, from that area. For example, wizard’s sceptre from training area allows player to use spell that otherwise wouldn’t be available at the beginning of the game and because of this game doesn’t allow player to take items with them from training area.
If your inventory is getting full of gold and you are afraid to drop them on ground then take them to the banker of Town. If you decide to start a new game then gold in inventory and bank will carry over to a new game. Banker also has a deal with shopkeepers: if you inventory is low on gold and you repair or buy items (or learn skills) then gold gets withdrawn from your bank account. Banker doesn’t grant a loan[en.wikipedia.org] and gold doesn’t have interestest[en.wikipedia.org] so don’t expect to get more gold from bank than you deposit there.
This is something that happens after you beat the boss so I’ll add it in spoilers..
After killing the last boss, the Draak, you get access to his gold treasure deep back in his cave. Everyone knows that most dragons have some kind of treasures, right? There is a lot of gold and it will definitely fill most of your inventory. No kidding. After killing the Draak the town people have been turned into a stone so you can’t deposit (or withdraw) your gold to (or from) bank until you start a new game. This also means that if you have any other items you want to carry over to a new game then you might have to throw away a few potions or some other items with low value to keep both gold and items. Amount of gold you receive at once can be quite a surprise to those who are doing this the first time. Even if banker is turned into a stone your gold will stay on your bank accont.
Treasure should be worth of 195 000 gold in total which means it should take 20 slots in your inventory if you want to carry all of it.
Character attributes
All four type of classes have limit how much they can increase a skill with attribute points from level up. This part of the guide uses some of the information that can be found on:
[link]
Warrior/Amazon is best at Strength and worst at Magic.
Wizard/Sorcerer is best at Magic and worst at Strength.
Assassin/Thieft is best at Dexterity and worst at Vitality.
Monk/Priestess is best at Vitaltity and worst at Dexterity.
Above strengths and weaknesses are based on amounts that classes can max from level up attribute points, not based on amounts what they actually give. For example, even though Assassin can get only up to 50 vitality from level up points, they actually get more health per points than Wizards do. Wizards gets one max health per one point of vitality but Assassin gets 3 points of max health per 2 points of vitality.
Another interesting thing is that Assassins can potentially deal more damage than Warriors can. Let me explain. Warriors and Assassins both get bonuses to damage from Strength and Dexterity, Warriors natural cap for Dexterity is 100 and Assassins level up cap for Strength is 150. This means Assassin has a chance to naturally get more points in attributes that adds to damage. This isn’t only reason why I claim Assassins can get better damage.
Two points in Strength and eight points in Dexterity gives +1 damage for Warrior.
Four points in Strength and two points in Dexterity gives +1 damage for Assassin.
Let’s say both of them adds 200 points in both Strength and Dexterity.
Warrior gets (200 / 2) = 100 points from Strength and (200 / 8) = 25 points from Dexterity.
Assassin gets (200 / 4) = 50 points from Strength and (200 / 2) = 100 points from Dexterity.
Total amount is 125 (warrior) vs. 150 (assassin) when both classes have same amount of points in Strength and Dexterity.
Monk is there as comparison. Wizard is excluded because they rely on spells rather than direct combat with weapons.
Table 2 shows how much 100 points in vitality and magic gives life and mana to each class.
There are generally three ways to increase chance to hit in Darkstone. Increase Dexterity (2 Dex to 1 +Hit chance for all classes), use Berserker[www.thanatosrealms.com] spell (from 50% to 400% bonus to chance to hit) or equip items (weapons, armors, amulets or rings) that directly increase Hit chance.
Level up cap for Dexterity is highest for Assassin, then Wizard, Warrior and Monk. When it comes to spells, level up cap for magic is highest for Wizard, then Monk, Assassin and Warrior.
Table 3 shows how much classes can get Hit chance from both attribute (except for Assassin I’ll use 200 Dex instead of actual cap, otherwise it would be too high) and Berserker spell (using 200 magic for wizard, it is enough to max out Berserker) they can cast with magic they are able to get with leveling up points.
It is good to notice that Assassin with 50 more points (250 in total) in Dexterity would have same Hit chance as a Monk and with 350 more points (550 in total) would have same Hit chance as a Wizard if Berserker spell level remains unchanged. On the other hand, Assassin will have the best Hit chance if it can reach 180 Magic for spell level 8 Berserker and gets 400% Hit chance increase from it, making the total amount 500% with 200 Dexterity.
Later in the game players will have access to attribute potions which can either be found or bought. Each potion adds one point to attribute they are used for and they cost 10 000 gold each (less with Trade skill) when bought. There are also Surprise potions that can increase one attribute and decrease another attribute at the same time. This can sometimes be a good or bad thing because amount of increasement can be either higher or lower than decreasment and attributes which gets changed are randomly selected. Those who want to take full benefit from these potions can save the game before using Surprise potion, use potion and compare which attributes were changed and how much and save again if change was good or load the game if it was bad.
These potions are only way to permanently increase attributes past their level up limit. Temporary way would be increasing them by using different kind of attribute items such as amulets or rings. Or weapons & armors that have bonuses to attributes but I personally can’t suggest that because it will increase cost of repairing the equipment at blacksmith.
Quick Overview on Warrior & Amazon
It is very recommended to take a look on Character attributes section before continuing.
These specialize in close range melee combat with one-handed and two-handed swords and axes. Even though they might not have the greatest raw damage but their Master’s Swords have overall greatest damage range and they can increase speed of attack with Master of Arms (skill exclusive to this, Monk and Priestess) and despite of their low magic skills they can enhance their AC, Chance to hit and attack speed with Berserk spell which even recovers lost health points.
With one-handed weapon and a shield on another hand they can become a good tank, especially if they have some extra % modifiers to AC, bonus points to life in equipment and with some extra points in magic they can take full benefit of Berserker spell and increase their AC up to 200 extra points for 89 seconds, requiring 180 points in magic. With same amount of magic they would be able to use Reflection spell for 26 seconds which completely reflects any kind of projectile, both magic and projectile weapons (throwing axes, arrows), giving character enough time to get closer and swing the sword around. It would be worth of noting that warriors have slowest cast speed for spells so I strongly suggest using spells only out of combat or with long enough distance to monsters.
When it comes to skills, this class has 4 good skills, 2 bad and 1 somewhere between. Master of Arms is one of their most important skills (after Learning but before Trade) and another rather good skill is Concentration which can temporary increase stength and dexterity. Note: if you equip items while Concentration is active and don’t have enough attributes for them without it, then those items become red, they stay equipped but lose all effectiveness until you have enough attributes to use them again. This can be fatal during a battle if you forget to keep using Concentration.
Summary: Great balance between melee damage, Armor Class (AC) and life. The greatest weakness is learning & casting spells.
Quick Overview on Wizard & Sorceress
It is very recommended to take a look on Character attributes section before continuing.
Wizard and Sorceress specialize in casting spells and remembering which type of magic works on which type of monster. Wizard (or Sorceress) with a maxed Communion skill and item that has ‘Quick Mana Recovery’ (such as unique sceptre[www.thanatosrealms.com]) and another item with rare ‘Mana Shield’ enchantment[www.thanatosrealms.com] is one of the most strongest kind of characters that can exist in Darkstone. This is because having both maxed Communion and Quick Mana Recovery makes sure that your mana hardly ever completely runs out even if you spam spells and even if it does then it will be back to full just in seconds. Additionally, Mana Shield will exchange your life points to mana points instead so as long as you have enough mana then your health stays full.
Wizards start slow but their potential is probably greater than any other classes in the game. They can stay invisible, cast powerful spells, teleport from place to place and monsters dies without knowing who killed them or from where. Sooner or later they will rely more on telekinesis with opening doors and checking barrels and chest rather than breaking things with a weapon.
Unlike wizards, sorceress is able to transform a werewolf which gets strength boost from magic points. There are few downsides for using spells, one is figuring out spell immunities of monsters but also to figure out traits of spells and best time and moment when to use them. Biggest limit to wizard’s damage is their spells. Once they get best possible spells with their highest spell level (such as Thunder with spell level 8), they won’t be able to increase max amount of damage of that spell. There also will be several monsters immune to several spells which can make it hard to kill things later.
Summary: Capable of dealing damage, and AoE damage, from distance and is able to use spells such as Invisiblity and Teleportation effectively to get past monsters. The greatest weakness is low health and some monsters having immunities on spells.
Quick Overview on Assassin & Thief
It is very recommended to take a look on Character attributes section before continuing.
This class can get powerful projectiles, my favorite being throwing axes. This not only allows the class to wield a shield too (on second hand) but it feels throwing axes hits easier on skeletons compared to throwing knives or arrows (bows). Like wizards, these also prefer to attack from distance but like warriors, they rely on physical attacks rather than magic. Silence skill helps more with getting away from monsters rather than getting closer without getting noticed. This allows you to form “hit & run” strategies in dungeons.
Later in the game when you get high magic (from attribute potions), very high dexterity (some with level up points but also a lot with attribute potions), moderate amount of strength (160 is enough for best shield) and as much vitality as possible (again, attribute potions). This class, when combined with high magic, is basically unstoppable. Reason for this is mostly these support spells: Absorption, Berserker and Reflection. Absorption with high spell level doesn’t only give you back life points (when attacked not undead monsters) but also mana points (as far as I can remember, has been long time since I last time had a character with it). This allows you to keep using spells as long as you encounter enough living monsters. It is worth to note that this class can cast spells faster than Warrior & Amazon.
Assassin & Thief shines in Town. They get Trade (skill exclusive to this, Warrior and Amazon) which increases price of items you sell and decreases prices when you buy items. At first it might not look much but later in the game when you get maxed Trade and are buying items that cost 100.000, maybe even 500.000 or more per item then you can clearly see the difference. Skill unique to the class is Theft which allows you to steal items from most npc who sometimes drops valuable items. Another skill this class can get it is Identification (exclusive to this, Wizard and Sorceress) which identifies items without having to spend gold at Madame Irma.
Summary: Best at 1vs1 long range combat. The greatest weakness is monsters with Reflection spell.
Quick Overview on Monk & Priestess
It is very recommended to take a look on Character attributes section before continuing.
I honestly don’t know much about this class but to me it looks like some kind of tank with heal. Because they are almost as good at magic as wizards are, they can easily get Berserker for increased attack speed, bonus to AC and hit chance. They also get Master of Arms for additional attack speed increase and Communion for faster mana recovery. Skill unique to this class is Prayer which increases their AC even more. Their Medicine skill is supposed to heal other although I have never actually tried it. On top of high AC and ability to heal others (self healing can be done with Healing spell) they can get the highest health among the classes (2 vitality for 5 life). At higher levels all attributes can be quite high with attribute potions, this would mean 400 vitality should give 1000 health and 800 vitality should give 2000 health.
When compared to other classes, they get 150% more health than wizards, 67% more health than assassin and 25% more health than warrior per each vitality point. If mana is being compared then Warrior gets half and Assassin gets 3/4 of mana what Monk gets per each magic point and Wizard gets 50% more mana than Monk can get. This means they stand first in amount of health and second in amount of mana.
Monk & Priestess would probably be great class to play in a multiplayer where it could benefit from skill to heal others and could also better fill a role of a tank and take hits for others. In a single player mode it feels like a class that can’t do quite as much damage as other classes which makes soloing harder despite of rather good AC and health.
Summary: Great health and AC, ability to heal others. Lower damage than other classes.
Magical Wizard
Earlier I said I would explain a little bit of offensive spells of Wizards so here it is.
Magic Missile[www.thanatosrealms.com]
Spark[www.thanatosrealms.com]
Magic Bomb[www.thanatosrealms.com]
Fire Ball[www.thanatosrealms.com]
Wall of Fire[www.thanatosrealms.com]
Poison Cloud[www.thanatosrealms.com]
Flame Thrower[www.thanatosrealms.com]
Thunder[www.thanatosrealms.com]
The most basic wizard spell for attacking. Damage is nothing great but works at the beginning quite well. At lower spell levels it shoots just one magical projectile but higher spell level allows spell to go all directions.
Has to be pointed with mouse to wanted direction at lower spell level when it launches only one projectile.
More effective version of Magic Missile but I’m quite sure it doesn’t go to several directions at higher spell level unlike Magic Missile. This spell can usually be skipped unless you are stuck on Magic Missile for a long time and can’t seem to get any better spells. Can be quite useful if you find monsters that are immune to Magic Missile (such as Magic Missile shooting Giant Wasps) but not immune to this spell.
Same as with Magic Missile, has to be pointed to direction with mouse.
Rather powerful spell at early levels but tricky to use. Has to be used directly on enemy to kill them. You can also place them on ground and they work as mines for a short duration or until enemy walks over it. Can be casted over walls in dungeons.
Same thing what some Skeleton Captains use. Weaker version of Flame Thrower. Literally launches a fire ball, used in same way as Magic Missile and Spark.
Places a wall of fire, hurts enemies that walk through it. Best at doors but a bit tricky to use. Can’t really recommend using much time on this.
Long distance AoE spell that can go over walls at pointed place. Damage is quite good and I can recommend this along with Flame Thrower and Thunder.
More powerful version of Fire Ball. Launches 3 fire projectiles which spread forward (pointed direction) in small angle. Very powerful at close distance and quite nice also at long distance. I can recommend this along with Poison Cloud and Thunder.
Short range very powerful AoE that affects enemies near you, even behind. Doesn’t have to be pointed to direction which makes it quick to use. I can recommend this along with Poison Cloud and Flame Thrower.
Certain monsters are immune to some spells and receive only 1 damage when hit by them. Spells such as Magic Bomb are some sort of ‘magic’ magic. Monsters immune to these are a bit harder to explain but for example Amazons seem to be immune to at least Magic Bomb.
Fire Ball, Wall of Fire, Flame Thrower… Monsters who can launch fire or are otherwise fire related are immune to fire spells.
Poison Cloud. Monsters immune to this are those that can poison the player, for example spiders, scorpions and wyverns.
Thunder. General rule is that flying monsters are immune to this, including bats and wyverns.
Later in the game when playing harder difficulties there are monsters that can use Reflections spell and any kind of projectile magic is ineffective against them, from Magic Missile to Flame Thrower. Spells such as Magic Bomb, Poison Cloud and Thunder works on them unless they have other immunities.
There are also some monsters that have immunities on all kind of spells and during harder difficulties (Legend at least) there are very annoying huge spiders that have Reflections and are immune to a lot of things. Another example of immune creature is fire breathing wyvern. Wyvers are able to fly so they are immune to Thunder, they can poison so they are immune to Poison Cloud and if it breathes fire (not all of wyverns do that) then it is also immune to Flame Thrower.
Wizard is great class and powerful but later in the game when several type of monsters have immunities on spells and also Reflection against projectiles then it makes playing a Wizard quite much harder.
There are also some other combat spells that don’t do direct damage, at least not in the same way how these above spells work. Some of them turns enemy into a stone or a chicken, summons a fire golem to aid you, pushes enemies back with a storm, confuses them or makes them even fear you..
Changes and Updates
I’ll try to remember add things to this list if guide gets updated or it will be modified, excluding corrected typos[en.wikipedia.org] or other similar errors and mistakes.
- Hint & Tips: Deleting a character was added. (18-1-2015)
- Hint & Tips: The Draak was modified and image was added in spoilers. (13-10-2014)
- Videos were added in Controls and Hints & Tips. (10-10-2014)
- Quick Overview on Classes sections were added. (10-10-2014)
- Magical Wizard: Spark spell information was slightly modified. (10-10-2014)
- Hints & Tips: The banker & The Draak were added (05-10-2014)
Last words
I know this guide is still quite short and far from complete and there are, and will be, a lot of things I’d like to add to this guide. If you can’t find information you are looking for from this guide or from two sources I mentioned earlier in the guide, then I’d be happy to answer your questions if you leave a comment.
Reason why guide is currently little bit small is because it isn’t actually easy to know what kind of problems new players or those who are still unfamiliar with Darkstone might encounter. A lot of things that might cause them headache might be too obvious to me and in those cases it is easy for me to miss such things without even realizing they might be difficult to others. So please, if you have any questions then don’t hesitate to ask. I’d be glad to make more sections to this guide if there isn’t already a category for your question.
—–
This guide in this form has completely written by me but some of the information from
http://dsdb.it-taucher.at/attachments/212_Darkstone%20Manual.pdf
[link]
was used as source material during the guide. However, nothing was ever directly copied over to this guide and I respect the work of original authors.
Thank you for reading!
~ Please feel free to leave a comment on below before you leave. You may also add the guide to your favorites if you wish, it is very much appreciated.